First Blog Post!
I created a wordpress blog a few weeks ago and I wanted to make it all multi-platform so here is the post. Iām going to try and make this an on going thing.
It would be really cool if I could get any feedback from you guys. Thank you :-)
Im not new to wordpress, I do have another blog (I created for a uni essay) but anyway, this blog is basically my first attempt at a proper, lifestyle blog. For this blog I created my own logo and I know a lot of bloggers find it difficult as they're not super hand-sy with graphics stuff. But the point of this blog is to show you, neither am I! And that doesn't matter because nothing has to be perfect (unless you're in that industry).
At no point in my life will I describe myself as a a graphic designer or computer-aided designer but that doesn't mean that I see arty pixels and run. Instead I try to improve on the skills I have, which I hope this blog will encourage you to do in many things, not just stuff like logo making.
So first of I drew in the real world a pretty picture. At the time, I did not have the logo in mind, I just drew whatever came to me. I drew something for my bedroom door at university. This is a good idea to follow as you want it to represent you, think of the blog like your bedroom, first impressions start straight away, from the closed door. I hope that makes sense, if not just do whatever you feel like! Draw parts of your personality or things you think are nice or pretty or cool. Heres my drawing:
So I drew that, with watercolour pencils, and a few images I found online of the different flowers.
I then used my flatmates printer/scanner to scan it and upload it to my laptop.
I uploaded the photo to Paint.net. This software is so easy to use, not straight away, but after a few hours you tend to know or gather where to find what and what buttons potentially mean what. It is like a simple Photoshop, but does also explain why people pay for Photoshop. I'm not knocking Paint.net but, there's a reason its free, it does lack some annoying handy buttons and effects and uses. For a beginner, Paint.net is just fine for me, so should be for you too!
Here's a little info on the useful buttons and drop downs Paint.net has to offer:
I'm not the best at graphs, as you can tell.
After opening in Paint.net, I then just basically added another lay on top and made an outline over the top of the original drawing. It took me roughly half an hour to an hour to redo it all technologically. My main tips would be to really mess about with it, go with what you think is right and try everything there is to offer because it just looks more personal and arty that way.
If you don't think your logo is good enough, you can always go back to it. I do writing at university and I always make amendments about four times before I'm happy with it. So don't be shy to revisit your first try!
Up close and bigger, it doesn't look that professional. But I wouldn't expect it to, I only just started doing this sort of thing, so don't beat yourself up either. Plus the logo is going to appear quite small, so all the little accidents you can't undo are easily hidden!
To summarise, I think its really useful and productive to have a logo on your blog as it will say a lot about you. If you're a student or unemployed, putting effort into a blog, even just the logo, will go a long way with employers, as looking creative, even if its not a creative job, is a desirable quality. Furthermore, it shows how much effort you put in, how much you put into how you look and are perceived.
